What is Brainwave Entrainment?

Before you try any of the plethora of products out there utilizing binaural beats, check out this free open-source project: http://uazu.net/sbagen/. It is easy to use and can generate powerful scripts.

Now that you have a tool to try this out with, I shall endeavor to explain how this phenomenon works. Human brainwaves are divided into roughly four categories:

• 0.5-4 Hz - Delta
• 5-8 Hz - Theta
  
• 8-12 Hz - Alpha
• 13-30 Hz - Beta

The human brain tends to generate a lot of different waves at any given time. But one particular frequency will dominate. Delta dominates during deep sleep and sleepwalking, and Theta during REM sleep and vivid dreams. Alpha dominates during periods of relaxation and the early stages of falling to sleep, and Beta dominates when you are wide awake.

When you see or hear a stimulus at regular intervals, this generates a similar frequency in the brain. It's similar to hearing a tune and wanting to sing along. The main trouble is that your ears can't hear frequencies lower than about 30 Hz. That is where binaural beats come in.

If your ears hear two frequencies, one in each ear, the difference between the two is heard as a third tone. For example, 440 Hz in one ear and 450 Hz in the other ear comes off as 10 Hz. If you have it tuned to 1 Hz, you can tell even more easily -- that's one beat per second. So for example 100 Hz in the left ear and 101 Hz in the right ear produces a steady pulsing sound, which incidentally corresponds to a Delta frequency in your brain.

I am still in the process of testing brainwave entrainment at various frequencies. They appear to make me tired, energetic, and euphoric at various times. Theta and Delta unsurprisingly make me sleepy -- not something I necessarily want when I'm trying to get work done. Sometimes I just get a headache (probably from too high of volume). I believe when I find the right mix, it will be a very powerful personal development tool indeed.